Author Jessica Cornwell is the granddaughter of writer John Le Carré, which creates its own very particular anxieties. Her debut novel, The Serpent Papers, is a story of research, mystery, murder, occult objects and twelfth-century alchemy.

Sunday 15 Feb 2015

Did you know Australia had its own superheroes and comics in the 1940s? There was also an upsurge in pulp fiction and true crime, all of which is showcased in a new exhibition of lurid art and design at the State Library of NSW.

For many years Debra Oswald was best known for as the head writer and co-creator of the hit TV series Offspring. Now she has written a novel called Useful, about a man who decides to give away a kidney.